Adam Hargrove, head brewer at Boscos Squared in Memphis, pours beer at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Boscos won silver for its Isle of Skye Scottish Ale.

DENVER — Two Tennessee brewing companies took home medals Saturday at the Great American Beer Festival, the world’s largest commercial beer competition.

Memphis-based Boscos Brewing Co. won silver in the Scottish-Style Ale category for its Isle of Skye Scottish Ale. It was the first win at GABF for the Isle of Skye and brought Boscos’ total GABF medal count to 11, going back to the year 2000.

With a medal draped around his neck, Boscos founding partner Chuck Skypeck was beaming Saturday evening at the Boscos GABF booth, talking beer and answering questions about the Isle of Skye.”It’s always nice to win medals,” he said.

Boscos enters the competition as a “brewpub group” that allows it promote the win across all its breweries, from Little Rock to Memphis to Nashville. The winning beer was brewed in Nashville.

Meanwhile, Nashville’s Yazoo Brewing Co. won a bronze medal for the Yazoo Hefeweizen, which was entered into the South German-Style Hefeweizen category. The medal was Yazoo’s third overall at GABF and second for the Hefeweizen, which won gold in 2004.

We are always proud of our Hefeweizen, from its use of only authentic German wheat malt and a true German yeast, to our use of the traditional form of bottle-conditioning using only high-krausen wort (where a portion of hefeweizen made the night before is added just before bottling, undergoing a secondary fermentation in the bottle),” Linus Hall, Yazoo’s brewmaster and owner, wrote Saturday on the Yazoo blog. “We always love when German tourists in Nashville give a suspicious glance when we recommend our hefe – only to say ‘it’s guut!’ when they drink it! But it’s especially nice to win a medal for it, at the equivalent of the Oscars for brewers.”

The Great American Beer Festival competition awarded 254 medals Saturday to some of the best commercial breweries in the country. Award-winning brewers received gold, silver and bronze medals in 84 beer categories covering 134 different beer styles. Winners were chosen from 4,338 entries from 666 breweries, hailing from 48 states, Washington, D.C. and Guam.

Memphis’ Ghost River Brewing, which is entering four beers in this year’s competition, will have a booth on the festival floor. (Find it in the Southeast section, booth F12.)

In addition to its regular booth, Ghost River is participating in the Farm to Table Pavilion, a special area off the main hall where attendees can taste how well craft beer pairs with food. Ghost River’s beers will be featured with food from Vin48, a restaurant in Avon, Col.

There’s a new Brewpub Pavilion at this year’s festival, and Boscos Brewing Company will have a booth in the special area. The pavilion will feature 24 breweries representing all regions of the country, and it will be set up to recreate the brewpub atmosphere that craft beer enthusiasts enjoy. Boscos, with brewpubs in Memphis, Little Rock, Nashville and Franklin, has entered 10 beers into the competition.

Boscos’ entry with Nashville homebrewer John Malone, the “McFearless,” will be poured Friday evening. Malone is president of the Music City Brewers.

On another note, Chuck Skypeck of Boscos and Ghost River will be serving as a judge at the festival for a 15th straight year, and he’ll also be participating in the You Be The Judge promotion on Saturday at 1 p.m. The event allows attendees to judge a beer along with GABF judges in a directed tasting.

In 2011, Boscos Hefeweizen took gold in the category of German-style Wheat Ale. It was the fourth win for the Hefeweizen at GABF. Ghost River took the silver medal in the Irish-style Red Ale category for the Ghost River Copperhead Red.

The Red Hop Ale, an American Amber/Red Ale, was inspired by Green Flash Brewing’s Hop Head Red. I tried it in California a couple years ago and it left me wanting to brew a hoppy, red beer.

Working under the tutelage of Boscos founding partner Chuck Sypeck and head brewer Adam Hargrove, we adapted my 5-gallon recipe, scaling it up to brew on the 7-barrel system at the brewpub.

On brew day, fellow FuzzyBrew blogger and homebrewing buddy Grant Smith was able to join me. Adam was gracious enough to let us do most of the work while showing us how to operate a system that was far more complex than our homebrewing set-ups.

It was undoubtedly one of the biggest thrills of my life, and Grant and I took plenty of photos, from start to finish.

Thanks to Boscos and the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs, I’ll be traveling to Denver in October for the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am competition. The Red Hop Ale will be competing against other beers from teams of homebrewers and craft beer professionals from across the country.

Thanks again to Chuck and Adam for this once-in-a-lifetime experience!